Andrew Weissmann, Bess Levin & Teddy Schleifer

about the latest in Trump's many legal jeopardies. Then we'll talk to Puck's resident Silicon Valley billionaire expert Teddy Schleifer about SPF and the rest of the tech world gone mad. But first we have Vanity Fair political reporter Best Levin. Welcome to Fast Politics. Best Levin, Oh, thank you so much for having me such an honor. We're very excited

to have you, fellow Vanity Fair writer. First, let's talk about it Trump having left behind thirty four million dollars of assets when she died into why discuss that's really surprising. I don't want to stereotype, I don't I don't want to speak ill of the dead, but I'm surprised that she had that amount of money when she died. I would have thought that she sort of would have been,

you know, she had the huge townhouse. But I would have thought it would have been kind of like a an E. D. Beal situation where it was just like ruins and there was no money left. Right, Yeah, it's kind of amazing. Well, they will say the town houses twenty six point five million, so that's part of the thirty four. Yes, that's like a large part of it. Right, So that's still she still had over ten million. Or if I'm doing my math right, in the bank, that's

maybe she had great um financial advisors. Yeah, I mean she certainly didn't invest with her acts, right exactly. She didn't. She didn't put some money in truth social Trump and Trump Steaks, Trump Steaks, Trump Water. Um, here we are, we are in the weird hundred and eighteen Congress best, very weird. What do you think? I mean, it seems like Trump is gone, or at least he's in his elbow.

What do you think about I mean it does it certainly feels like the dysfunction is not going away anytime soon. Oh no, it almost seems like the dysfunction is worse than ever you have the Kevin's and the never Kevin's you have. I mean, how amazing was that fourteen losses in a row until he finally each one out. Is he one of these people who is just so detached from reality that he's like, you know, this is like can he look himself in the mirror? Like can he

look at his children when he goes home? Or is he like ashamed or is it totally fine? I don't know. But so you've got that, you've got Marjorie Taylor Green running things. And also she thinks she's president, as I'm sure you saw she said she's not. She's not signing

any of these bills. I love her so much. I mean, she's terrible for American democracy, but she's very good, right right, right, right, she's fighting in the bathroom with Lauren Boebert, and then Lauren Boubert's new land when she, by the way, has now tweeted, by the way, Lauren Boebert's tweets, both Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Green have decided that they are going to have gravitas. Now. I don't know if you've

noticed this. Oh right, it's amazing, it's amazing. So so Lauren Boebert was like, we are here because she's very psyched. She's on oversight lulls, and so she was like over So she has all these oversight tweets now, which I think are incredible. It's amazing. Yeah, and also Margie is also on homeland security, which is amazing because she said the other day. I don't know if she I don't know if she said it flatly or if it was just the suggestion that Hillary Clinton had JFK Jor killed

because he was her competition for becoming senator. Yes, that's right, Yes, I remember it well. But like as people know, it's incredible because if these two weren't, you know, in Congress, or maybe even if they were, like you can easily see them being the two people at the bar where one of them cuts in line the other person for the bathroom and the other one smashes a beer bottle over the other one's head. And now, yeah, and then and then we've got Mr Santos. Yes, all right, so

Sandos dog killing eleven Holocaust. I mean, the drag thing is the best part about him. He's Jewish Ish Jewish. He never said he was, he never knew Jewish. He put the emphasis on Ish. And and you people are disgusting for suggesting otherwise. I don't know how you live with yourself. I mean, yes, and then the tweets. Now he's got this real righteous indignation. Oh god, they're so good,

They're so good. I will not be distracted by this. Right, the people of NASA elected me as the child of Holocaust survivors to serve in Congress, and now that I'm not the child of Holocaust survivors, it's amazing. And like we haven't even talked about these people make Jim Jordan's somehow look look serious. I don't know it's but he's not. Obviously, Today's punch Bowl was all about Jim Jordan's and the ways in which he is pushing the levers. I'm sorry,

Jim Jordan's. Yeah, former wrestling coach, Jim Jordan, these are the people you want making our laws and doing our doing our thing. It's crazy. No, so yes, I agree with you that the insanity and the dysfunction is seemingly worse than ever. Jim Jordan is going to end up being the head of disiary. What that will look like, I mean, I assume it's going to be a lot of Hunter Biden, right, And do we think it's gonna

be much of anything else. I mean, are they the people who will drag I mean, he's gonna yell at Jerry Nadler a lot, because Jerry Nadler is the minority member who besides Hunter Biden. Do you think they're going to haul before them for questioning? There's definitely will be impeachments right right, Oh, they're already talking about the Homeland guy Biden. I don't know. I mean, their majority is so slim. They're gonna talk on impeachment every single day

from the next two years. They're gonna probably drop articles. But what do you think of them actually being able to impeach Biden? Like, given how Kevin McCarthy is bid for they'll actually be successful. I can't imagine a world where they are able to actually do anything in this Congress. But I do think there'll be a lot of stram and drama. I mean, look, good thing that is imminent

is the debt ceiling. Yes, I mean June is when we run up to this, all right, we already Yesterday was when we ran up to the dead ceiling, but Jenny Yellen said she could do some weird accounting and had to worry until June. It's important to note that no other country has this dead ceiling. It's a completely made up fiasco. It has been taken, it has been weaponized by the by Jim Jordan's and his people in the Freedom Caucus. So these are fake problems that Jim

Jordan World has decided are going out them right. Oh, and they'll definitely use them for you know, hostage situations and tactics for sure, because they don't actually care about the economy, right, I mean, and they certainly don't care about like spending less. I mean, oh god, no, I mean that. I feel like that is like an amazing little bit of sorcery right there. Oh yeah, No, they don't care at all. If a Republican president is in office, They're like, spend it all, spend it all. I do

all the tax cuts, it doesn't matter. And now they're like, screw you, Joe Biden, you that beat piece of ship. I do think it is an incredible bit of sorcery. I want to get back to Santos for a minute, because we moved too quickly through this. He is one of the four votes that McCarthy desperately needs in order to stay speaker. But every day is another embarrassing revelation. So it's incredible, the scarf right, the dog killing, the Holocaust.

One of my favorites, the little One, is that he was a volleyball star at Burke College and like help to new replacements and help them beat Harvard and Yale, which oh, it turns out they never played Yale when he claims to have gone there, Like, it's just it's so amazing, but yeah, the k staff is truly truly terrible. If it were me and I were lying about something as ridiculous as what sport I played in college, I

don't think I would have picked volleyball. Yeah, I mean, I guess he's tall, so maybe he thought it would be believable. I agree with you that I don't know. Volleyball is kind of I don't want to offend your volleyball listeners, but maybe volleyball team is kind of lame. But maybe he thought, maybe he thought it would be believable. He was like, I can't get away with saying football. Does Brew College have a football team? May even have a volleyball team. I'm not sure they do. I think

I think shockingly they do. And I only say shockingly because like literally he doesn't tell the truth about anything. It is a city college. Apparently, what his pattern is is he steals stories from other people he knew, and he stole that from someone he knew. Oh okay, And just like the scar off, the barbary scarf that he wore the January fifth and he said he he loved for employees and the Pulse shooting, Like, what's true at all?

It's not true at all, Like what I once had this date with a guy like years ago before I was married. I've been married ten million years. He said he grew up next to Chernobyl and my husband was like, I was like, you know, that's a lie. Right. It was like, no, it's possible, and he was like, no, it's a lie. And like I was thinking back on this idea that like you can't have too many of those things, right, he has all of them. The Holocaust, Bolt, nightclubs, shooting.

It's incredible. It's ah, it's amazing. He almost makes Trump look like a person who doesn't have trouble telling the truth, like almost speaking of Valdemort. Yeah. Yeah, this reporting today is like I want to say, like, is the worst person you know? Me? Right? Donald Trump says and I

mean again, we never talk about like Donald Trump. I don't want to pay him a compliment because obviously I don't want to pay him a compliment, but I do think it's an interesting He does have some smart political instincts. And you will remember when Roe was overturned, he said this is going to be real fucking bad for the

Republican Party, and he turned out to be right. And so today the Oracle of Palm Beach, which he is not, said that under no circumstances should Republicans vote to cut a single petty from Medicare or Social Security because the dumbest person you know is actually maybe smarter than Kevin McCarthy. Yeah, it's interesting he does. You know. That's the really annoying thing about him. It's like sometimes he's kind of funny things like that, right, I know, Well that's you know,

that's how won the nomination. It's the whole thing with like the santast terrible and I think he would be just as bad as Trump. But then people are like, he doesn't have trumps like I think the I think yeah, I think New York Magazine called it trump sinister charisma exactly. He doesn't have that he's just like terrible. And that's

the problem with Trump. It's like it would be great if you just weren't present, you were just this uh, you know, circus sideshow that we could like sometimes laugh at without being like it's really bad for society and humanity. But yeah, he's smarter than Kevin McCarthy. He's so bad at politicking. It feels like he's so obvious and everything he does. And I agree, like he he's somehow like not the crazy sentence, but like not as smart as Trump. What this is in no way an endorsement of anything.

I mean, Trump is a core idiot and he's a terrible, terrible human being, a terrible politician. But I'm not sure he would have lost four teen speakership races in a row. I don't think so either. Now would that be because he would like send out his goons to send a method that there would be broken kneecaps or or black mailed people or be like I'm going to write a book and I know that stuff like maybe that could be part of it. So we can't just say it

wouldn't be through underheaded tactics. But I agree with you, I can't see him losing fourteen votes. And we just had a guest on here yesterday who talked about or whenever. The last episode of this was where she said that Kevin McCarthy has thought of as a dead man walking at this point. Yeah, oh totally. I mean he's beholden to George Santos. Yes, he needs to keep George Santos happy. How does this play out in your mind? I mean,

I don't know. Do you think they're going to fire him at some point or do you think they like having him to like push around? He will not resign, right, clear, will now resign? Oh sorry, I thought you meant with McCarthy. Oh McCarthy, Well, you only need one person, right, so like right, yeah, you have to bring it to a vote. He gave them that that was their thing, right so, chip Roy, I mean, I think there's a likely scenario where the debt ceiling brinkmanship ultimately pushes a new car.

I mean, look the dream my West wing brain, right, you know that this sort of terrible. The TV brain says like moderates will come together and save the American credit. But you know if they do that, they all lose their parmers. The Republicans anyway, so that even if they're

in a swing district. So, I mean that is the sort of amazing thing about this situation is that McCarthy has gone along and gone along and gone along, and now he finds himself in a situation where he is in bed with people that you can't that will you know, knife him. And you know, you have all of these candidates who are in these Biden districts, these Republicans who cannot you know, if they shut down the government, they will lose their reelection, but if they make a deal,

they will lose their primaries. Right. I don't think anything good can come of this situation. And also especially for McCarthy, I think this is a terrible, terrible idea to become speakers and prayers. What are you gonna do? In terms of Santo's playing out, Oh, he'll never resign never. I think the only way he's out within this term is if,

like he is arrested. Doesn't right exactly, But otherwise I don't think he's going I mean, I'm sort of like, Okay, if he runs for reelection, how does how does he do it? Again? Now that the people of Nasau County. So I think he's gonna I think he's gonna ride out these two years and then who knows what his next act is. The thing that is amazing Man Santos is the money stuff doesn't make any sense, right, Like he donates more money than he's ever made in his

life to his own campaign, right, that seems suspicious. He has this relationship with a Russian oligarch. All good, that's there's a real likely scenario where we see him. You know, there's either a legal situation or you know, I mean those guys, I'm not sure you want to do a lot of like money borrowing with Russian oligarchs. No, I don't think so seems bad. It seems like it would

be a bad idea. Also, like can we just talk about this is just reminding me of the money and the Kevin the fact that he had a staffer on his campaign who was raising money, calling up donors and impersonating Kevin McCarthy's chief of staff. And they admit that happening, Like I read them the other day where Kevin McCarthy's office was like, yeah, when it came to our attention, like we resolved it, Like what we resolved at the first So supposingly McCarthy was like, Santos fired the staffer

who was involved in that. You're like, yeah, it was the staffer, and that's exactly it was. Obviously Santos idea, or maybe Santos is the guy doing the impersonating right or whatever his name. They may not even be Santos. And if it's just like one of his lives, imagine if we heard that just you know, pick any random elected official Democrat or Republican, Like what if we heard that Katie Porter's communications person was impersonating Nancy Pelosi, Like

that would be a huge, frea good deal. And it's just like tenth on his list of bullshit. But it's incredible, right, well, Democrats, it's never a crime when when Republicans do it right obviously, obviously, thank you so much, best. I hope you'll come back. Oh of course, please help me. Andrew Weiseman is a former Department of Justice prosecutor and author of Where the Law Ends. Welcome Too Fast Politics, Andrew Wiseman, So nice to be here. Finally, I'm delighted. Um. I have so

many questions for you, um all our listeners. No, I mean you have worked in every part of the legal world. I'm sure there are some parts you haven't, but I wanted to ask you. I mean, the first question I have is, I think we have talked about the Fanny Willis grand jury. Can you explain to our listeners because

I think there still needs to be another grand jury. Yeah. So, you know, this is a bit of an anomaly in Georgia state law, and there's sort of an investigative grand jury, and that's what everyone's would have been following when you've been looking at you know, well, Juliani testify, will Lindsay

Graham testify, etcetera. And they get to issue a report, and next week there's a whole contretemp that's scheduled about whether that report will be made public and if so, when, and then there's another grand jury that gets to decide

whether to indict or not. Now, the good news for people who want to see things move along quickly is funny Willis doesn't have to wait to and panel that grand jury and to present evidence, nor does she actually have to represent all of the evidence, meaning she doesn't have to call all those live witnesses back. She can have an agent summarize what was said, she can present the transcripts of what was said to the new grand jury, so all of that could be quite quick if she

decides to go forward. Is it true that the reason that this is happening that this Fanny Willis has this jurisdiction because she's elected, and she is, you know, a man, she's great, but she's a partisan. Ultimately, the reason she has this jurisdiction is is because of Jenna Us and Rudy.

I think it's because in each of the states where there was an effort to get a slate of fake electors and also pressure put on people to change the election, as we heard on the tape between Trump and Ravensburger, all of those states would have jurisdiction to go forward. It just so happens that this d A has taken a bit and and run with it to mix a lot of metaphors. So she's trying to vindicate the Georgia

state process. And of course, you know the fact that there was that tape makes it that much more compelling because it puts Trump right in the middle of it. The other is everyone focuses on that and the federal case, but long term, like if I were Donald Trump or his defense counsel. It's the Georgia case that I'd worry the most about because he can't be federally pardoned. If, for instance, Trump were to win the presidency or de Santis or any other Republican, they can't do anything about

state charges. The pardon doesn't apply. So, you know, I really think keeping our eye on what happens in Georgia and potentially in the Manhattan d A's office also, since they're now making some noises about resurrecting their investigation, can we talk about the Manhattan d A because he's been

back and forth on that. That's um Alvin Bragg, he had said, And remember there were the two people who quit, and I'm sure you know these guys, and then they were quite furious, and then there's back and forth, and now he's saying he might do it. What is happening? I'm not sure myself. You know, I know so many of the players there. I bet I can see, like Carrie Dunn, who was the general counsel there and litigated twice in the Supreme Court, is by all accounts a

street shooter and a superb lawyer. You know. For him to leave, you know, suggests what the hell is going on. On the other hand, um, the team that just tried Weisselberg and others there who I also know are also wonderful, aggressive, appropriately aggressive prosecutors. So you know, where I hope this comes out is that there was just a disagreement about the necessary quantum of proof and some people thought that there was more that was needed and others thought there wasn't.

You know, that's sort of my best guess because I sort of assumed good faith on both sides. And also it's not like Alvin Bragg had some political motive to delay things. I mean, he was sort of very politically it would be you know, it would be good for him to bring the case, and so you kind of want your prosecutors to not be operating that way and to be trying to do a fair assessment of the case. On the other hand, you also don't want to be afraid of bringing a righteous case and and a rate

of losing, or afraid of the controversy. So I think there's more to more on that, And you know that the latest on that is Mark Pomerantz, one of the lawyers who quit, is apparently has written a book and there's a whole back and forth because he apparently did not submit it for what's called pre publication review, which I wrote a book that you're supposed to do that. You know, I did it. It's not a fun experience, but you agree to do that up front. So he

apparently didn't do that. So it'll be interesting to see what happens with that, because I know when Pete Struck had to do it, I mean, it was a real pain for him. But they can sue you if you don't do that. Yeah, they can sue for all sorts of things. That the least is that they can take all of your proceeds and profits, and the worst is if you aren't careful and you have revealed grand jury

information that actually is a crime. Now, in Mark's case, it's hard to imagine somebody with his pedigree and experience that he would do that, right, I mean, he's he's so experienced that you would assume he sanitized it of that information. Right. But it's a ballsy move, right, It's definitely a ballsy move. I Mean my reaction to it was, you know, even John Bolton went through pre publication review and you know, and he's not exactly your model but

you know, even he did, it's so interesting. I mean, it's just such a sort of like we really do find ourselves in this strange situation. So Trump has all of these legal cases against him. The documents case was until there were these Biden Center documents found, the Documents case was the sort of most open and shut, sort of slam dunk case against Trump. Now did the Biden documents, which are obviously not the same thing, even a little,

But do they hurt the Trump case? And you know, I'm going to give you a legal answer that you'll hate, which is yes and no. Right. I mean, that's that's why people hate lawyers to say the no is. You know, at the Department, what you do is you're trained to look at the facts in the law and to differentiate cases. And as you said, Molly, it's like the cases, at least what we know about them, couldn't be more different. One has criminal intent and obstruction of justice, and by

all accounts, the Biden one does not. There's no question that he turned the documents over as soon as he is aware of them, so far as we know at this point, and there's no evidence of obstruction of justice, so legally there should be a recommendation from Jack Smith to go forward on his case, and you would expect for Rob her the special counsel, and the Biden case

to recommend against it. But that being said, it is so important that if a former president is going to be charged for the first time in our history, that there'll be public acceptance and understanding as to why that is appropriate and why he's being treated just like anyone else. And if you look at the Department of Justice precedent and there's the other cases they brought, there's no question.

And I unfortunately I'm a nerd and I've done a huge deep dive in that there's no question that Donald Trump UM should be charged if he's going to be treated the same as other people, because people who did far less than than he have been charged. But I think it is going to hurt a sort of public acceptance aspect, and that is such a huge part of

bringing the case um. But I do think that's where people like us are going to be really important to to for the Department and for commentators to really talk about why there is a difference and why they are appropriately treated differently. If we end up in that position, Yeah, I mean I don't know, you know what Trump has

been teflon for so long. The thing that I was talking to Hugo Lowell about before, just to name Drob, before we did this interview, was this idea that Trump had actually mixed documents, and so he had documents that were um sort of high level classified documents mixed with more recent documents, and that that might show intent. Yeah.

Absolutely so. The fact that he would have documents mixed with personal documents but also ones that are recent would suggest that he actually knew of the documents and was aware of them at the time. I mean, because you know, a normal defense for sort of senior people, whether you're talking about a corporation you know, I prosecuted the end on executives, or you're talking about a gang or political leaders. In all of those situations, the normal defenses, I didn't

really know what the low level people were doing. It's like, you know, they were just sort of on their own. I mean, Biden is clearly saying that, and it could very well be true. So, but Trump, the evidence on that is he's been you know, he hasn't helped himself by um saying you know, these were mine, and he would the one who ordered and kept very close hold on sort of how they would be taken from the White House and what where they were going and where

they were kept at Mara a Lago. So I think that kind of defense is going to be really hard for him. Um. I was recently asked, can you think of a defense in that case? And the interest No,

you know, and we really tried. I mean I was part of this group where we we did a sample prosecution memo and it was this group at n y U, and we really tried to flesh out any and all plausible defenses, and you know, we did, but none of them worked because there was so much counter evidence, some of which coming directly from Donald Trump's mouth, you know, which is yeah, exactly. And so you know, as a

defense lawyer, that's always the worst possible thing. Um. You know, you you're basically you know, you want client control to basically shut up. It's super interesting, especially when we have these documents. The thing I was struck by was that the Trump people were all like immediately like in my mind, I thought, wow, they put a special prosecutor on the Biden documents much more quickly than they put the special

prosecutor on the Trump documents. That is pretty shocking. But the Trump people immediately started making the case that the special prosecutor that Biden had gotten was actually a deep state planned because he had worked to the FBI for the FBI, the head of the FBI who was appointed by Trump. I mean, I worked at the FBI. I was the general counsel there. That's not exactly a deep

state institution. I mean the idea that this is somehow democratic stronghold is sort of is, you know, this is the world we live in where it's all sort of our well and double speak. Rob her is a hardcore Republican, and he is a Republican. He was appointed by Trump to be a U S attorney. He worked for Rod Rosenstein. You know, one of the controversial things he did when he worked for Rod Rosenstein is he gave it press

conference announcing a criminal case. And where did he do the press conference from the White House, which, by the way, talk about like blurring the line between the what's supposed to be the independent Department of Justice in the White House. So the idea that they're going to try and paint him as a deep state democrat is this is just black as white territory. My sense is they're doing this because they know that this document case against Biden is

not the same as the document case against Trump. Yeah, unless something breaks, you know, based on all the facts that we have so far, this is one where I would expect a thorough fast investigation that leads to a recommendation of a declination. I have a question about this Trump's Chinese bank account. I feel like we had that news and it just like disappeared. Obviously, a president is not supposed to have a bank account in China. I'm not even sure that any of us are supposed to

have one in China for the American citizens. I mean, I guess it's not a legal technically, but I mean there's no legal consequences for any of this kind of stuff. It's just sketchy. It is sketchy and a concern because you want to know why it's there, and what its purpose was, and who is putting money into it for what ends. I mean, So there are all sorts of concerns about from a national security perspective as well as

just a sort of foreign influenced perspective. But there is a way in which a sort of very obvious way in which it could be illegal, and I stressed could um. And that's because, for instance, in the Paul Manifort case, one of the things he did is he had all of these foreign bank accounts on his United States tax returns. A standard question that's in all of our federal tax resourns is a question about whether you have any foreign accounts.

He checked off repeatedly for years. No. He told his tax advisors the answer was no. And instead he got all of this income that she didn't report from Ukraine and other places, and he used it to pay for things like his very fancy gardener in the Hampton's and his maide service and his Ostrich jacket and all sorts of other things. And he just paid from his accounts in Cyprus. It's tax fraud, yeah, exactly. So he was. One of the charges he faced was simply lying to

the I R S about his foreign account. I know, obviously we had to show that he you know, that he personally knew he had that account, and that he knew that he had told the I R S that he didn't have those accounts. But that wasn't very hard to show. So again, one of the I think sort of disappointing things in terms of the Department of Justice is there has been apparently a tax audit for now years and years and years by the I R S about Trump's taxes, and then it doesn't seem like that's

going anywhere. While the state has looked at that and prosecuted successfully his companies, it doesn't appear that there's really an active federal investigation into that. And then recently we've heard the tax authorities say, well, you know, it was just too hard, which he was too complex, and that I have to say, as as a farmer, you know, federal prosecutor, it's like, are you joking. I mean, that's your job. I mean the idea. It's like, listen, you

know your crime was sophisticated. So that's kind of above our pay grade. Is not a great answer in terms of your obligations to the American public. Trump got a lot of like legal risk taps recently. Right, Like that judge who just said that his lawyer who was a conservative television host, can you talk about that, because that's pretty interesting. That's Harbor, right, her name is exactly um. So there was a fun of almost a million dollars

sanctioning the lawyers were bringing a frivolous case. And I actually think it's a good indication that the lower courts have really buy and large made be leaving Judge Cannon aside have done a really good job of applying the rule of law, whether it's a judge appointed by Donald Trump or by a Democrat and really saying, you know what, we are a separate institution and we're not gonna green light your fraud claims. We're going to hold you to account and refer you to bar associations if you make

sprivolous fine filings. And this is a really I think an important fine to say, you know, you can this whatever you're doing in the public sphere and like tweeting and disseminating all sorts of garbage to the public, when you do it in a court of law, there are sanctions for that. And so I really applaud the judges who are are taking that seriously. So I want to ask you about this for a minute, because then the next day Trump withdrew his lawsuit against the New York

State A g Leticia James. Is that do you think that's related? Also? For Donald Trump to bring any civil lawsuit. It's so ridiculous because he would then be subjecting himself to being deposed. That's not a good look. I mean, we just saw the deposition transcript and the Gene Carroll case, and you know, he looks ridiculous. I remember when he threatened to sue the New York Times and the New York Times General Council wrote a really funny letter that

he made public that basically said, bring it on. You want to see us great, looking forward to it. Andrew, this was so interesting. I hope you will come back because you are way above our pay grade here, so we really appreciate it. Don't be silly. I'd love to. I'd love to. I know you, our dear listeners are very busy and you don't have time to sort through the hundreds of pieces of pundentry each week. This is why every week I put together a newsletter of my

five favorite articles on politics. If you enjoy the podcast, you will love having this in your inbox every Friday. So sign up at Fast Politics pod dot com um and click the tab to join our mailing list. That's Fast politics pod dot com. Teddy Schleifer is a tech reporter at Puck News, Welcome too fast politics, Teddy, thanks for having me. Very excited to have you all right, So first we have to talk about Sam Bankman freed and his jailhouse. Except he wasn't in his jail house.

He was in his parents house, his parents house interview. He just decided to have you over discuss a little a little team trumpets on a Friday night in Paul Alto. I mean, he's not going anywhere right right. The reason why I think he wants to talk and want to talk in reason why we see him, you know, with a sub stack. You know, he's he's tweeting through it.

I think he feels like lots of people on your enormous scrutiny doo, he feels misunderstood, he feels wrong, he feels mischaracterized by you know, the media, and whether or not he is correct or not as sort of irrelevant to me. It's an opportunity. As a reporter, you know, you live for that right, You live for the opportunity to get the access to people when they're like walking

the tight room. And so Sam had me over when we talked for a couple of hours about everything from his case to his life under house arrests to you know what his family and friends think about him right now? It's surreal right to think that one of the greatest alleged frousters of our generation is just come on over

for tea pretty wild stuff. Did you feel when you were doing this interview like you were getting con Sometimes I feel like when you're doing an interview with someone, you all of a sudden are like, you know, yes, sister, Like all of a sudden you start sort of rooting for them. But sometimes you really do get the sense you're getting you're that there. They think they're pulling it over on you. Did you have one or the other on that right, someone's always getting the kernalist conning the

subject or the subject counting in the journalists. Sometimes it's a little bit of both. I don't know if any interaction with the recorder on the table is an authentical one, Like I think there are some that are more than than others. Look, I mean, for him, um, he probably thinks that you know, he's calming me, right, is he gets the opportunity to talk about things he wants to on his terms. You know this is not under ah, there's no real consequences for it. You know, he gets

to pain himself as a sympathetic boy. No one wants to be his friend anymore. He's donalant to leave the house, and he has this dog, and like, you know, he gets to pain and more sympathetic torture than the SDN. Wise pointing, so, is there a KLN element on me? Like? Sure, I think I think there's always a kind of element

when there's an on the record interview. But as a reporter, you know, I might think I'm kind of him, like I'm getting access to a person who isn't really doing other interviews, and is you know, obviously there's enormous public interest in kind of what his life is like. So Colonel Rand the best kind of corn. One of the things I've found really interesting about this whole case is that Elon Musk feels that he is getting better treatment

then Ellen. You know, Ellen was like, no one's ever going to investigate him because he's a Democrat, and then like the next day he got extradited. He's sort of

a rorshack yeah or shock yes. But also I might argue that he is like kind of universally hated, but for different reasons, right for conservatives, you know, he's this big limb who got a free path in the media for too long because he was buddy buddies with everybody and getting everybody money and doing any too liberals and saying all the right things about making the world a

better place. Blah blah blah. It's funny because on the left there are lots of leftists who I saw him as this like crypto student who was bringing the party into unsavory and non savory industry and as neoliberal agenda, you know, hanging out with Tony Blair and Anthony stron

Mucci and spreading gospel capitalism. So like to say nothing of the fact obviously he's now a you know, albatross Democratic Party is you know, groups have listens themselves from Sam Like look, I mean, it's not like Bernie Madoff had friends by the end of this politically, or you know, Elizabeth Homes or urban never and everyone hates stand back and free. You know, Elon used to be like a hero all the left until like six seventeen when he's

kind of started going on his own. He was tweeting then, but like, you know, the public opinion on the line has transformed over the last five years I don't know what he is a chooser own adventure. People are mad at him for any number of things. I mean, he did also give money to Republicans to write. Yeah, I've done some reporting on this, and it's just that it

was Sam did donate some money to Republicans. Could I believe based on my reporting at Sam donated like, you know, ten twenty million bucks to Republican interest groups or to see for words like sure, But the proponderance of Sam's money was still going to democratically, to make no mistake about it, right, Yeah, I think he was like lots of donors who were in heavily regulated industry, spread the leve around to everybody on the House Final Services Committee,

and their politics are just whatever is good for their bottom line, not unlike you know, Elon Musk. Is he a Republican. No, But Sam has some Republican connections. And frankly, one of Sam's main deputies was this gunn in Ryan Salem, who was a Republican donor who was hanging out with Trump Jr. And his girlfriend was running for Congress as a Republican. So one of the problems for the right as they try to go after Sam is that there's plenty of f t X money on their side of

the Aisland as well. Some places are paying back the money, right, I saw that Samaphore is paying back the money. Yes, so every entity would be quite dumb at this point and not prepare for the possibility that they need to send them money back to somewhere. The challenges of them all is like, if you put yourself in a position

of some recipient, so what do you do? Right? I mean, you don't want to give the money back to you know this, you know this alleged criminal to you know, standing on illegal defense LUSS and do feel pressured to do something as like some Democratic congressional candidates in November, or like do need money to charity. There's a chance that like FTX, creditors might hit those correctional campaigns for money again, in which case you could have to pay twice.

So I think the most prudent course of action that lots of committees are taking right now, whether they're if you receive money from SAM through a nonprofit or renceive the investment from SAM, everyone is basically trying to put it in some Escoro account or some wait and see segulgable.

You know, money pot to figure it out later, and you can announce that right, and you feel good about yourself and you resist pressure from the media for just pressure from employees to you know, not be laundering Sam's money. But you wait a couple of months until it's clear where you're gonna send it. So that is where lots of SPF tainted committees and nonprofits are ultimately going to

put the money. Isn't like, hey, I got a million bucks from Sam, I'm gonna put it in you know, this account over here, and you know, whatever the government tells us to do with it, we'll do. But obviously this is a huge problem for anybody who's gotten in cash, like I'm thinking about like lead of politics. I mean, there are there are super PACs that raise money right and spend every dollar, every dime, every penny before the

mid terms or before the election day. Like there aren't just groups that are like sitting on now five million bucks. So suddenly when you know, House Majority Packed for instance, needs to return five million dollars from sand bankmant free like after the election is over, like the group could have no cash, so you have to go out and raise money basically to recoup the money you're spending from San Magnat Free that you're putting in this account. It's a cluster. Can you get me up to speed on

what's happening with the Elan and Twitter? He seems mad at his advertisers, who he desperately needs, but also vassilates between mad and look, they're all coming back what is happening, So they're going to towards the Twitter revenues down stuff in the middle from this in the tradition from advertising to subscription, right where he is obviously bringing the platform into making it less safe for you know, the products and gamble of the world to you know, flog their toothpastes,

but people aren't necessarily paying the eight dollars a month for subscription. Here in the situation now where advertisers don't want to be on the platform at least as much as they did, you know, six months ago, but there's not the subscriber subscriber base of people who are love

with this thing. So ultimately, like elut be very thankful to secribe the company of that effort for earnings Corps really because the equity value of this thing is done I think it's possible that Twitter and a subscription product can work, though there's gonna be a lot of pain on the way, and obviously it will be like any subscription product will have smaller audience but could entertain the same amount of cultural and fluence by having a third

as many people were all spending much more money on a product millar before. Maybe I don't think the idea of converting Twitter into a subcription business is a bad one. What do you think my senses? I'm I've been wrong about so much here that I don't even want to touch it. But my feeling is that he just gets bored and decides. I mean, I just wonder how long

until he gets bored doing this. When he first took over, everyone was, you know, like all the people on the right were delighted, right, and they were like, He's gonna get us what we've always deserved. But ultimately, you know, you can't. This entitlement is unquenchable. So you know, after a while, they were like, why hasn't Ellen, you know, delivered me millions of followers and you know, Ben Shapiro money. I'm not convinced, Like, why does he want to do this?

Now everyone is mad at him. His like you know, Cat Turned, who was his bestie, is like torturing him. I mean, like, why doesn't he want to just go back to doing rockets? Sure, if you look at Elon's own Twitter feed and like who he replies to, do you ever look at stuff like that? It's a fascinating window and into just like why he might be doing this right he is? Like I think you and I are sitting there saying like, wow, this doesn't seem to

be going well. But if you put yourself and elant musk shoes, like, you know, he is the hero of kind of the online right right now. You know, obviously he thinks the mainstream media is to get him, as we just talked about, But there's obviously sort of a warped sense of reality that he has about how things are going. Um, and I'm not totally sure that what we think matters. It does seem to me like this just doesn't. I guess you think as long as he's

having fun, he'll keep doing it. Yes, as long as he's having fun, as long as there's not pressure from his own investors and his own creditors to cut the bullshit out right Ultimately, there are smart people who gave him money to invest the money in this company. And if Elon Musk is having a great time, but this company is is tanking financially, there's got to be some come to Jesus moment eventually that I think is what matters,

not what we think is. You know, the only dose of reality that's coming for eluding must is when people a sequit capital or at the banks that loans of money to say to Eline, so how does that turnaround going over there right right? Right? I mean, or you know, he loses control at Tesla, right, that's the other kind of financial pressure. Teddy, this was so great, Thank you so much for coming on, Molly Jung Fast, Jessie Cannon.

So obviously the GOP now owns that they gave Marjorie Taylor Green a seat on the oversight committee and represented McCall of Texas. He had to defend it on the Sunday shows and he said, I will tell you she has matured. I think she realizes she doesn't know everything, and she store and it became I think more of a team player. And you know what she said. Yet, Marjorie Taylor Green spent the day spinning conspiracy theories on

the internet. And again, this is something that anti vactors have started doing a lot, and it's just mind numbingly amazingly stupid. Diamond and Silk, who are pro Trump pundits. One of them, Diamond died, and again we don't know how she died. There was I think in autopsy, but it has not been revealed. But Diamond and Silk were serious anti vactors who believed that lockdowns and masks and vaccines all, you know, we're much worse than actually being safe.

Marjorie Taylor Green furious. I demand immediate investigation into COVID vaccines and the dramatic increase of people dying suddenly this can no longer are be ignored and not and is not political. Well, first of all, it's absolutely political, right, she's an antivaccer. But second of all, Diamond was a big anti vaxxor So does that mean Diamond was secretly vaccinated? I know, and you know it's so weird. The one time they got mad at Trump, the only time they

were across him, was when he pushed the vaccine. You can be an anti vaxer, but you can't then say you were killed by the vaccine. Yeah, well, or can you? Or can you? You haven't matured the rules, don't better to you. That's a simple physics. There. That's it for this episode of Fast Politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to your the best minds and politics makes sense of all this chaos. If you enjoyed what you've heard, please send it to a friend and keep the conversation going.

And again, thanks for listening.